The oldest pubs in London: Their colourful histories and where to find them

The oldest pubs in London

The oldest pubs in London

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Ye Olde Mitre

Holborn

Often described as the hardest pub to find in London, the Mitre is located through a narrow passageway off Hatton Garden. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have once danced around a cherry tree in it’s back garden with Sir Christopher Hatton, one of her favourite subjects, whom Hatton Garden is named after.

Until as recently as the 20th century the pub and the surrounding area belonged to the Bishops of Ely, making it technically part of Cambridgeshire. As such, the owners had to go to Cambridgeshire to get their licenses. The first Mitre Tavern was built in 1547 for the servants of the Bishops of Ely, but the present building dates from around 1772.

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Spaniard’s Inn

Hampstead

The Spaniard’s mythology has benefitted from its proximity to the great and good of Hampstead. Robert Louis Stevenson, Joshua Reynolds, Byron and Keats are all thought to have once used this pub as their local watering hole. Its location also meant it was, for a time, a haunt of infamous highwaymen, including Dick Turpin.

References to the pub appear in Ode to a Nightingale by Keats as well as Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. The building itself was built in 1585, though it did not become a pub until later.

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Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

City

This is one of the many pubs that were rebuilt in 1667, following the Great Fire of London. The Cheshire Cheese has been on this site since 1538, but its vaulted cellars are thought to have once been part of a 13th century monastery.

With its dark wood panelled walls, gloomy interior and saw-dusted floorboards, the Cheshire Cheese feels like a Dickensian time warp. The seating areas in the cellars mean it is considerably bigger than it appears from the outside.

George Rex

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The Prospect of Whitby

Wapping

The unassuming name of this docklands pub reveals nothing of the darker side to its past. In the 16th century it was called the Devil’s Tavern due to the reputation of the sailors, smugglers and thieves that it attracted. The Prospect dates from 1520 but following a fire in the early 1800s, the majority of the building is a rebuild and now only the 400 year-old floor dates from before the fire.

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The Lamb and Flag

Covent Garden

Bare-knuckle fights in this pub meant it was once known colloquially as the Bucket of Blood. The large standing area, combined with curious nooks and crannies, mean the Lamb and Flag feels much as you might have imagined it did when it was first built.

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The Seven Stars

Aldwych

The current building survived the Great Fire of London and dates from around 1602, though it has had several refurbishments since then. Located just behind the Royal Courts of Justice in the middle of the law district, it’s no surprise that the Seven Sisters is a favourite of the lawyers and legal students who work in the area.

Ashley Coates

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The George Inn

Borough

London’s last remaining galleried inn, the George is owned by the National Trust and is leased to a private company. Charles Dickens often visited the George when it was coffee house and referred to it in Little Dorrit. The present building dates from 1677, but there is clear evidence that there has been an inn on the site since medieval times.

Free from planning regulations Londoners of the past thought nothing of tearing down a 16th century pub and rebuilding it.

Then there are buildings that became pubs later in their lives and pubs that stopped being pubs, and became pubs again later on.

Often tucked away in unassuming back alleys, with little to indicate their significance, even the most secluded bar will have undergone considerable change over its lifetime. Despite this, if you look hard enough, you can still find hints of the pubs that were once the haunts of Pepys, Keats and Dickens.